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F orty years ago, on July 4, 1976, Israeli special forces flew more than 2,500 miles to Entebbe Airport in Uganda when an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris was hijacked by Palestinian and German terrorists who boarded in Greece. After the terrorists released non-Jewish pas- sengers, the Israeli unit rescued 102 hostages, mostly Israeli Jews. It is an anniversary marked with pride and sadness for Arie Smargon, 69, of Huntington Woods, a special forces veteran of both the U.S. Army and the Israel Defense Forces. He took part in the Entebbe operation, one of the most celebrated rescues in military history, but he lost his best friend Yonatan Netanyahu — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's older brother — who commanded the operation and was the only Israeli military fatality. Smargon's family were among the first Jews to arrive in America. In the mid-1700s, they moved from England to what would become West Virginia. The family became merchants and sur- veyors, and later moonshiners. They once employed Daniel Boone as a sur- veyor, and family lore has it that Boone would visit for Shabbat dinner. Smargon's father was a career U.S. Army man who met American Lt. Col. Mickey Marcus during WWII when they parachuted onto the beach in Normandy, France, in June 1944. "Both being Jews, they connected," Smargon says. "They were together throughout the end of the war and, after liberation, they arrived at Dachau together." Marcus' zeal for action and Jewish commitment took him to Israel where he served as an Israeli general during the War of Independence. After Marcus was accidentally killed in 1948 by friendly fire, Smargon's family remained close to Marcus' widow, Emma. "We would visit her every year in New York and go to the annual memorial service at West Point [where Marcus is buried]. "I knew how to say the words 'Mickey Marcus' before I knew how to say 'Mom' and 'Dad'," he says. "The other two words were 'West Point'." In 1963, with Emma Marcus' help, Arie Smargon got an appointment to West Point. While he passed the entry exams and the physical challenge, he struggled academically. "I didn't know how to study," he says, and he left to join the Army, telling the recruiter, "Give me the most dangerous thing you have." He recalls, "I loved the thrill and smell of combat." Moving through infantry and Ranger training, he joined the U.S. Army Airborne and the 10th Special Forces Group. He was in Cambodia when the U.S. was claiming it had no forces there, and later served two six-month tours in Vietnam. "I was a very, very green Green Beret," he says. Though new to the role, he was awarded a Bronze Star for heroism. "After my second tour, I was called in by my commanding officer, and told to pack my bags," Smargon says. He was going to Israel. It was 1969, and the U.S and Israeli militaries had grown closer after Israel's victory in the 1967 Six- Day War. Smargon spoke Hebrew, and the Americans needed a liaison officer to coordinate joint war games. NETANYAHU CONNECTION Smargon had met Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu earlier that year. While studying at Harvard, Netanyahu was sent to Fort Bragg, N.C., for a short course at the Special Warfare Center. metro » o n t h e c o v e r IDF Archives Forty years later, Huntington Woods man recalls role in rescue of hostages. continued on page 12 Israeli and Jewish passengers on the Air France plane hijacked by terrorists arrive home safely in Israel after a now-historic rescue mission by the IDF on July 4, 1976. 10 June 30 • 2016 Entebbe Memories Don Cohen | Contributing Writer Arie Smargon of Huntington Woods was with special forces units in both the U.S. Army and the Israel Defense Forces. Credit: Don Cohen